Changwon Attorney Recommendation | Case Concluded Through Closure of the Preliminary Inquiry Despite Charges Including Joint Coercion, Intrusion Upon Habitation, and Extortion

The client couple, who received a Changwon attorney recommendation, had met the complainant as a business contact.

The client couple, who ran a small company, were urged by the complainant to invest in land.

The client couple, who ordinarily placed great trust in the complainant, made the purchase, but it turned out that the land was in a development-restricted zone.

After belatedly learning of this fact, the client couple went into the complainant's office to confront him, told him to buy the land back, and transferred the registration into the complainant's name.

In response, the complainant filed a criminal complaint on charges including coercion, intrusion upon habitation, and extortion, claiming that the client couple had threatened him and coerced the transfer of the title registration.

🔗Coercion, as the term suggests, is an offense committed when a person coerces another.

A person who, by assault or intimidation, obstructs another's exercise of a right or compels another to perform an act that the person is not obligated to perform may be punished by imprisonment for not more than five years or by a fine not exceeding 30 million won.

If the person displays the collective force of a group or a crowd or carries a dangerous object, the person may be punished by imprisonment for not more than ten years or by a fine not exceeding 50 million won.

If intrusion upon habitation is committed by intruding upon another's residence, a managed structure, a ship or aircraft, or an occupied room, the person may be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years or by a fine not exceeding 5 million won.

Extortion refers to causing fear in another person by notifying that person that a certain harm will be inflicted, using assault or intimidation as the means, in order to obtain an unlawful pecuniary benefit.

A person who extorts another and thereby obtains the delivery of property or acquires a pecuniary benefit may be punished by imprisonment for not more than ten years or by a fine not exceeding 20 million won.

The Changwon attorney argued that the complainant had urged the investment even though he knew that the land was in a zone where development activity was restricted.

In addition, the complainant had told the clients, "If the value does not double by next year, I will buy it."

In fact, the client and the complainant had drawn up a contract for the land providing that the complainant himself would buy it if the price did not rise.

However, when the complainant did not keep his promise to buy the land, the client couple, angered by this, went to the complainant's office and demanded performance of the contract.

The Changwon attorney also rebutted the extortion charge claimed by the complainant.

The complainant claims that the client couple threatened him by sending text messages such as, "We will file a criminal complaint, we will file an accusation," and on that basis argues that they should be punished for extortion.

The Changwon attorney argued that the client couple had sent the messages to the complainant with the intention of settling the matter without escalating it, and not in order to extort or threaten him.